Fortunate son

Father's Day 2025

My dad was a faithful reader of this newsletter, despite not understanding a lot of what I write about here (“sounds like they’re on drugs!”). But he did, thankfully, love this piece I wrote last year for Fathers’ Day.

This year I’ll direct you to Hearing Things’ Jill Mapes writing truly beautifully about what she learned about music through her father.

One of the last things my father and I did together was binge on Mike Birbiglia’s standup specials. He has a new one I haven’t seen yet, about finding dark humour in his father’s debilitating stroke, and he writes about it in the New York Times here.

This Father’s Day, I want to talk about one of the two people pictured below. One taught me not to be embarrassed to sing “White Rabbit” into a BBQ lighter as a microphone. The other taught me how to play Dave Brubeck on piano. I’ll let you guess which is which.